On July 12th, 1630, Mr. Michael Pauw, Burgomaster of Amsterdam and
Lord of Achtienhover, near Utrecht, obtained through the Directors
and Councillors of New Netherlands, a deed from the Indians to the
land called Hopoghan Hackingh, this being the first deed recorded in
New Netherlands. On November 22nd, of the same year, the same parties
procured from the Indians a deed to Mr. Pauw of Ahasimus and Aresick
(burying-ground), the peninsula later called Paulus Hook. These were
the first conveyance by deed of any land in East Jersey. To these
tracts Pauw gave the name Pavonia from the Latinized form of his own
name, Pauw in the Dutch and Pavo in Latin meaning Peacock. When the
first settlement was formed or the first house built is unknown. In
May, 1633, Michael Poulaz or Paulusson, an officer in the service of
the Company, was living at Pavonia. He probably occupied a hut on
the Point which received from him the name of Paulus Hook. In the
latter part of 1633, two houses thatched with reeds were built, one at
Ahasimus, near what is now the corner of Fourth and Henderson streets,
and the other at Communipaw. So far as is known these were the first
regular buildings in this county.
Paulusson had charge of the trade with the Indians and was
Superintendent of Pavonia. He was succeeded in 1634 by Jan Evertsen
Bout, who selected the house at Communipaw for his home, and was the
first white resident there; this farm which Bout leased after Pauw
had sold his rights to the Company, was known as Bout's farm, and
included all of the upland lying between Communipaw Creek, where the
Abattoir stands, on the south, and the meadows where the engine house
of the Central railroad stands, or Maple street, on the north. Later
the Governor, General Kieft, and the Council gave him a patent for this
farm. The house was burned in 1643. It was in commemoration of Jan
Evertsen Bout that the circular hill and section of upland at the mouth
of Mill Creek was named Jan de Lacher's (or John the Laugher's) Hook.
In 1636 Cornelis Van Vorst became Superintendent of Pauw's property and
lived in the house built by Pauw at Ahasimus. For several years there
was trouble between the Company and Pauw, which was finally settled by
the Company paying to Pauw 26,000 florins for his interest in Pavonia.
[Illustration: THE VAN VORST HOMESTEAD.]
[Illustration: JAN DE LACHER'S HOECK.]
In February, 1643, about a thousand Indians fleeing from the Mohawks
came to the Dutch for protection. They were encamped on the upland near
the present intersection of Pine street and Johnston avenue. Here,
on the night of February 25th, a party of Dutch soldiers, by order
of Governor Kieft, murdered and brutally mutilated a large number of
men, women and children. The sickening details of this massacre by
white Christians cannot be surpassed by the records of savage races.
This led to serious troubles; all the Indians united and for a year
and a half made war upon the Dutch. They burned the house at Ahasimus
in which the widow and family of Van Vorst lived. A portion of the
farm-house built on the site of this first house was still in existence
in 1895. Between 1649 and 1655, there were quite a number of patents
for lands issued, principally to soldiers, at Communipaw, and as far
down as the present town of Greenville, and there were quite a number
of flourishing farms at Hoboken, Ahasimus, Paulus Hook and Communipaw.
The land upon which they lived was known as Bouweries, and the outlying
farms as plantations. At that time the land known as Kavans Point,
below Communipaw, extended farther into the bay. Winfield states that
"within the present century the waters of the bay have encroached over
200 feet, and that a cherry orchard once stood where fishermen now
stake their nets."
In 1655, an Indian girl stole some peaches from a farm near the
present site of Trinity Church, New York, and was shot by the farmer.
On the night of September 15th, 1655, five hundred Indians made a
night attack upon New Amsterdam, being repulsed, they crossed the
river and set fire to every house in Pavonia. Twenty-eight farms and
outlying plantations with crops and buildings were all destroyed. Of
the settlers one hundred were killed, one hundred and fifty were taken
prisoners and three hundred were left homeless. For five years the
settlements were practically abandoned. According to the Indian laws
the title to the lands was again vested in them by right of conquest.
In 1658 the Indians made a new deed of the territory to the Dutch.
The former settlers who were about to return to their farms asked
for exemption from taxes that they might be able to put their farms
in order. The petition was granted on condition of their building a
fortified village. In February, 1660, a decree was issued ordering all
farmers to move their houses into groups, that might be protected by
palisades or stockades, from six to seven feet above the ground. Indian
stockades always were of tree trunks, as are those of the Hudson Bay
Company to this day. Probably the early Dutch were also, although the
later stockades may have been of heavy plank.